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Marijuana: Anything But Harmless

By Jerry Cox

Against Issue 5

Issue 5 on the upcoming election ballot deals with “medical” marijuana. Essentially, this measure is a backdoor effort to legalize marijuana in Arkansas; it’s so broadly written that anyone who can demonstrate they suffer from “nausea,” “muscle spasms” or “chronic pain” can qualify. I think most of us — if we were really bent on doing it — could find a way to prove we suffer from one of those conditions — especially when you consider this law lets any doctor in the nation certify you to use marijuana.

If it passes, people would be able to grow marijuana at home; they could use as much of it as they want; the only limitations are how much they can buy from a marijuana store (if they are not growing their own) and how much marijuana they can have on their person at one time (2.5 ounces — enough for about 100 marijuana joints). A lot of folks shrug when they hear this, and say, “So what? Marijuana is harmless.” Well, the fact is marijuana is anything but harmless.

Proponents like to say there has never been a single death from marijuana. This is misleading. What they mean is it has never been conclusively proven that a person overdosed on marijuana. From 1997 to 2005, the Food and Drug Administration determined marijuana contributed to the deaths of 279 individuals. These people did not O.D. on marijuana, but if they had not been using marijuana, they might still be alive today. What’s more, some believe the numbers are probably much higher, because marijuana is often dismissed as a cause of death due to its “harmless” reputation.

A 2004 article in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics found that marijuana use can lead to a very rare type of stroke called a cerebellar infarction. Doctors concluded from case studies that going on a marijuana “binge” (i.e. using a large amount of marijuana at once) can lead to a drop in blood pressure, which in turn causes a stroke. They examined three cases in which otherwise healthy boys each suffered strokes following marijuana use. Two of these boys actually died; the doctors concluded their marijuana use was responsible. These findings were backed up by case studies going all the way back to the 1980s.

If marijuana use becomes common, we will likely see more and more people die from it. Why would we want to do that to our state? Issue 5 would let people possess 100 marijuana joints at a time, it would let them grow marijuana at home, and it would let them buy marijuana more easily than you or I could pick up a box of Sudafed from behind the pharmacist’s counter. The medical community says the right way to treat marijuana is to have Congress change the regulations so that they can conduct testing and extract its health benefits (if there are any). That’s how we get morphine and codeine — we don’t let people grow their own opium poppy plants to manufacture painkillers at home. We make sure it is thoroughly vetted by scientists and doctors, because that’s the compassionate thing to do.

When you cast your vote this year, vote against Issue 5. Who knows? Your vote might just save a life.

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Jerry Cox is the president of Family Council Action Committee, a conservative organization based in Little Rock.